John Eberlein v. Standard Fire Ins Co, No. 21-2925 (8th Cir. 2022)
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Plaintiff suffered serious injuries when his motorcycle collided with a car driven by a negligent motorist. After exhausting its liability limits, he next looked to the underinsured-motorist benefits of a policy covering just his motorcycle. When those benefits fell short too, he turned to a policy underwritten by Standard Fire Insurance Company that covered vehicles other than his motorcycle.
Relying on what the parties call the owned-but-not-insured exclusion, it denied coverage because the accident occurred with a vehicle that Plaintiff had decided to insure elsewhere. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court agreed with Standard Fire that it owed nothing. The Eighth Circuit affirmed. The court rejected Plaintiff’s argument that the exclusion is ambiguous. Even if “this coverage” might lend itself to some ambiguity in isolation, the remainder of the policy points to only one reasonable interpretation: the owned-but-not-insured exclusion applies in precisely this situation.
Court Description: [Stras, Author, with Erickson and Kobes, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Insurance. Defendant insured his motorcycle under its own separate policy, and he could not take advantage of uninsured motorist benefits under a different policy covering his other vehicles as the plain language of the policy on the other vehicles excluded coverage.
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